Fred Vervisch puts Audi on top in FP2 despite crash late on
Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch emerged as the fastest driver in the second World Touring Car Cup practice session at the Nürburgring, despite crashing at the Karussell late on.
The Audi RS 3 LMS driver posted a time of 9m44.908 during a damp 40-minute session, nearly nine-tenths of a second quicker than the Team Engstler Hyundai Elantra of Luca Engstler.
In contrast to the afternoon’s opening session, parts of the track were dry while large sections were wet following showers during the day.
Tyre strategies for the session therefore varied among the runners, with Zengo Motorsport’s Mikel Azcona one of two drivers to opt for a mixed selection of wets on the rears and slicks on the front.
Others, such as Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk and the Münnich Motorsport Honda trio of Néstor Girolami, Attila Tassi and Esteban Guerrieri chose to run wets all-round with everyone else running full slicks.
BRC Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz was the first to set a fully representative lap-time of 9m46.969, which was almost immediately beaten by Engstler who went over a second quicker.
Vervisch didn’t wasted too much time before hitting the front, on a 9m44.908 which turned out to the be the fastest as conditions worsened around the Nordschleife, and a yellow flag brought out after Vervisch’s team-mate Gilles Magnus crashed.
Magnus hit the barrier near the Döttinger Höhe, damaging his Audi RS 3 LMS and ruling the Belgian out of the remainder of the session.
There was a similar story for Vervisch towards the end of the session as he too clouted the barrier in the middle of the Karussell. Despite this, his fastest time still stood at the finish.
Michelisz ended up third fastest ahead of Münnich Motorsport’s Tiago Monteiro, while Santiago Urrutia was the best-place Cyan Racing Lynk & Cos in fifth.
Tom Coronel survived a wild moment through the gravel trap to record the sixth fastest time in his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS 3 LMS, while Yvan Muller recovered from a crash at the end of FP1 to wind up seventh.
Behind Muller was Jean-Karl Vernay who ended up eighth in his Hyundai Elantra, some 11 seconds adrift of Vervisch’s best. He in turn was nearly three seconds quicker than Attila Tassi’s Honda, while Azcona ended up 10th.
FP1 pacesetter Yann Ehrlacher was 13th fastest in his Lynk & Co, ahead of Esteban Guerrieri, who posted a late flyer after struggling for grip for the bulk of the session in his Honda.
Near the bottom of the pile, Thed Björk was 20th after failing to complete a representative lap-time.
Next up is qualifying, which is scheduled to take place on Friday at 14:05 CEST.
